Why aren't Jazz basses wired Volume-Balance-Tone?

[philthygeezer]

Seems like a pain in the butt to try to sort a tone with the relative level of each pickup and set an overall volume at the same time.

Why not have them with a master volume and a balance pot instead? Wouldn't it be easier?

 

[Moving Pictures]

Easy fix if you want to change it. I’m happy with the V/V/T setup on my Jazzes but I can see the appeal.

 

[SteveCS]

Seems like a pain in the butt to try to sort a tone with the relative level of each pickup and set an overall volume at the same time.

Why not have them with a master volume and a balance pot instead? Wouldn't it be easier?

VVT is something you get used to, and I for one prefer it. Can't say why, it's just what I'm used to - my first 2 basses were Jazz Basses. I can dial VVT in a lot more predictably than VBT. Some folks work the other way.

It's an easy, cheap and fully reversible modification to make, so you could try it at no more than nominal risk.

Edit: I do have one bass with BVT setup, but it is a backup and I haven't played it enough to instinctively remember which way to turn the blend pot for bridge or neck. So I end up going from one end to the other and listening to the change. With my current VVT bass, which I played almost 100% from 1988 to 2016, I just know which knob is which, where to reach and how much to turn without looking.

 

[WillyW]

Mine is

 

[chris_b]

I have one bass with VVT and another with VBT.

Both get me to where I want to be.

I don't see downsides in either.

 

[chris_b]

Mine is

Nice foot wear!

 

[bluesblaster]

Have both, works fine either way.

 

[monkeyhaiku]

Mine is just balance and volume. More than one sweet spot to be found that way for my money.

 

[MonetBass]

Simply because you can't get the same mix of pickups with a balance (blend) knob that you can with two volume knobs. Want 75% neck pickup + 50% bridge? Can't do that with a blend knob. That said, I have both also and they work for what I need.

 

[SteveCS]

Mine is

Yum, pink 'n' green. Mr. Leary would have approved, methinks.

 

[skycruiser]

Simply because you can't get the same mix of pickups with a balance (blend) knob that you can with two volume knobs. Want 75% neck pickup + 50% bridge? Can't do that with a blend knob. That said, I have both also and they work for what I need.

75% neck + 50% bridge is simply a 60-40 split between neck and bridge. Of course you can do it with VBT. Set it to 60-40 and set the volume where you want it.

 

[mikeswals]

You have to go back to 1950's and 1961 way of 2-pickup thinking. No one was using one. Guitars (especially Gibson) didn't have volume/blend/tone, they also only had two volumes two tones. Rics didn't either, and still don't. Of course those two have a toggle, so likely Leo found the toggle redundant when one could simply twist the knob thats already there.

 

[EmuBass]

Toggle-switch PU-selector is all I really need.

 

[MonetBass]

75% neck + 50% bridge is simply a 60-40 split between neck and bridge. Of course you can do it with VBT. Set it to 60-40 and set the volume where you want it.

60-40 = 60%-40%. Sorry, but that isn't the same as 75-50.

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

Blend pot costs manufacturer ten cents more than a volume pot?

 

[dieggsy]

60-40 = 60%-40%. Sorry, but that isn't the same as 75-50.

Wait, isn't it? 75/50 and 60/40 to me both sound like three parts neck to two parts bridge (with the latter just having a lower volume on VVT). I know there's talk of total volume level affecting tone itself but short of that it seems like the same ratio

 

[skycruiser]

60-40 = 60%-40%. Sorry, but that isn't the same as 75-50.

When you mix the pickups you are setting two things: the ratio of the 2 signals and the volume.

With VVT, if you set them at 100/100, the ratio is 1:1 and volume is max. If you set them to 50/50, the ratio is still 1:1 but you just reduced the volume to half. Is you set them 10/10, it is still 1:1 but volume is at 10%. (ignoring the taper effects etc).

So with VBT, you set the balance to 1:1, and control the volume with the V knob.

You can do the same with any ratio between 0:1 to 1:0. For VVT you do it by setting the volumes of the pickups separately. With VBT you set the balance and put the volume where you want it.

So yes, you can achieve the same mix of 75-50 with VBT. You set the ratio to 60:40 and adjust the Volume to put it where you want.

In fact, there is nothing you can do with either setup that can't be done by the other. Now there are circuit differences and the sound could be slightly different between them, but with both setups you can set the Ratio and the Volume. What is very hard to do with VVT is to maintain the Ratio while changing the volume.

 

[Killing Floor]

All mine are. Easy fix. Leo didn’t think about it when he owned the brand therefore it’s not relevant? That’s all I’ve got.
Blend pot means you can use a Jazz bass and have the same tone every time you play. And if your a neck heavy user (or a bridge heavy user) you can dial up just enough of the other pickup to defeat the hum.

So…
The answer to your OP…
…Same reason Telecaster jack cups have been falling out of Teles for 71 years but all the subsequent guitars and basses Leo made at Fender, MusicMan, and G&L use a better system. “Because Leo tried it once and that’s that”.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

Why aren't Jazz basses wired Volume-Balance-Tone?
I'm more curious why they use audio taper instead of linear taper pots...

 

[micguy]

I'm more curious why they use audio taper instead of linear taper pots...

The "volume" controls on a VVT wired bass don't really work like volume controls - as the pickups are reactive (their impedance varies with frequency), using potentiometers to turn two of those things up and down is something that, unless you put in an active circuit, really doesn't work well - they are as much tone controls as they are volume controls. The way VVT setups are done, the volume controls are wired backwards from what you see in a P bass. They "turn down" a pickup (this works very differently at high frequencies than it does at low frequencies) mostly by shunting it. What you get is, when you turn down a pickup, you turn down the high frequencies from that pickup by quite a bit, but the low frequencies don't get turned down much until the pot is close to zero - it's almost an on/off switch. If you use linear taper pots for the volume controls, all the same stuff happens, but the thing is even more of a switch - it exaggerates the major flaw in the scheme even more.